News & Information

Congratulations to Hayly Hoch, senior plant sciences major, who is a recipient of the Penn State Rock Ethics Institute’s Stand Up Award, which honors Penn State undergraduates who, as ethical leaders, have the courage and fortitude to take an ethical stand for a person, cause or belief. Hoch was recognized for her work as co-director of the student farm club, which brings together people interested in sustainable food systems.

In 2000, when a team of scientists led by Robert Ross studied the response of birds to the beginning of hemlock tree decline in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Matt Toenies was just seven years old, and the ecological havoc wreaked by invasive species was the farthest thing from his mind.

Cullen Dixon, a plant sciences major, participates in a lab that tests the effectiveness of secondary metabolite compounds produced by sorghum as potential biopesticides in combating foliar diseases of Zea mays, or corn.

A diet supplemented with soy protein may be an effective adjunct therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases, Penn State researchers reported after completing a study that included mice and cultured human colon cells.

Three graduate students in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences -- Phillip Martin, Ismaiel Szink and Rachel Rozum -- recently received prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Three Penn State graduate students -- Vasiliy Lakoba, Andrew Morris and Shanti Nachtergaele -- have been awarded the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. The award recognizes excellence in master’s-level thesis research in any of the disciplinary areas of fine arts and humanities; social sciences - applied and basic; physical and computational sciences - applied and basic; life and health sciences; and engineering.

Thirteen graduate students received the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award, Distinguished Doctoral Scholar Medal, in recognition of their outstanding professional accomplishment and achievement in scholarly research in any of the disciplinary areas of fine arts and humanities; social sciences — applied and basic; physical and computational sciences — applied and basic; life and health sciences; and engineering. The graduate students were honored during the Graduate Student Awards Luncheon held on April 18 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State recently celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Stand Up Award by honoring students Brian Anthony Davis, Hayly Hoch and Alexis Scott. This award is presented to Penn State undergraduates who have demonstrated courage, fortitude and ethical leadership by taking a stand for a person, a cause or a belief.

Researchers at Penn State have received more than $1 million in first-year funding from the National Institutes of Health to investigate malaria transmission in Southeast Asia with a goal of working toward the disease's elimination in the region. They will receive up to approximately $9 million over seven years for this project.

The Arboretum at Penn State will host a discussion of the role of fire in ecosystem health and how Penn State uses controlled burns to manage and restore natural landscapes. The April 26 presentation precedes a controlled burn on a 12-acre portion of Arboretum lands adjacent to campus planned for this spring as part of an ongoing re-creation of a prairie/meadow containing native grasses and wildflowers.

As part of recently announced changes to its organizational structure, product development and program delivery, Penn State Extension has appointed two individuals to statewide leadership posts. Tara Mondock is the new associate director for client relations, and Jeffrey Hyde was named associate director for programs.

Whole-exome DNA sequencing -- a technology that saves time and money by sequencing only protein-coding regions and not the entire genome -- may routinely miss detecting some genetic variations associated with disease, according to Penn State researchers who have developed new ways to identify such omissions.

The Integrative Studies Seed Grant Program, offered through the Penn State Office for General Education, will support 71 different course development projects this summer. In response to the large volume of highly qualified proposals, the budget was generously increased by more than 50 percent by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Undergraduate Education.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has renewed for another five years its support for the UNESCO Chair in Rural Community, Leadership, and Youth Development at Penn State. Mark Brennan, a faculty member in the College of Agricultural Sciences, will continue in his role as chair and provide leadership to the program.

Fragmentation of ecologically important core forests within the northern Appalachians — driven by pipeline and access road construction — is the major threat posed by shale-gas development, according to researchers, who recommend a change in infrastructure-siting policies to head off loss of this critical habitat.